“You have two minutes to get to class. You have two minutes.”
We have heard that phrase one too many times when rushing through crowds to get to our next class on time. Frankly, it agitates the heck out of me. It is quite embarrassing to acknowledge that a high school student actually needs to be reminded that an unpleasant monotone bell just rang four minutes ago. You’d figure they’d at least remember that. What is much more agitating is that students need to be issued “instructional make-up time” or as students are more acquainted with, detention. Yes, the truth of the matter is that those tardies are our fault, whether we like it or not the system does work.
Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS) students are allowed four tardies per student as a freebie, then comes that infamous fifth tardy. The fifth tardy and every tardy after that comes equipped with detention that includes a talk from the faculty about how timeliness is absolutely necessary and critical to your education  and then sitting for the rest of your lunch in a room of other late students such as yourself. The faculty does encourage you to bring a book or work as you are “making-up” lost instructional time which you were suppose to be learning to begin with.  Sounds terrible and boring to just about every student in high school, right? I know that I wouldn’t like to be stuck in that room. But as much as the students might hate it, this system is effective.
DPMHS’s lone security staff member Mitchell Cannon reports, “I would say there were around 30 to 40 students late in the morning to first period.  Then during the school day there would be around 10 to 15 more tardies to the rest of the periods.”
Now, this is just an average but the numbers are massive for a school with a student population of 332.  
“We want kids to understand why it is being done. It is easy for anyone to write a note, and if there was traffic or the (public) bus was late then we understand but it doesn’t excuse the tardy…that is why we give four freebies,” said Cannon.
As for being tardy for the rest of the periods, there is no excuse for that. Now, it’s around ten to 20 tardies for the whole day since the detention began.
“It started out as a few select students that continuously did it,” said Magnet Coordinator Marixa Pleitez.  
It is evident that these few students continued to be tardy because in the beginning there were not any consequences.
I commend the system for showing effective results within the student body on the issue of tardies. There are still those select few that say that see the fifth-strike-and-you-are-out system as unfair and not the best way to help.
“It isn’t effective for me. Being late is not something I can control. I’m late because of my baby brother and detention at lunch is not fair to me.  I barely have enough time to get my lunch,” said junior Natalie Livermore.
 She completely disagrees with the fact that she has to spend her entire lunch period killing time in a crowded room when she was only tardy three minutes to class. While that is unfair, it is the way the system works.
Every system has its flaws, but students need some sort of discipline when being late. The bottom line is that being excessively late is just not okay. And as cliché as it may sound, it is also unfair to your fellow classmates. If I have to be on time to every class so should every other student.  That part is definitely not unfair.
Accidents happen. They always have and they always will.  In the morning, excuses can range from the monstrous traffic attempting to eat your car to a simply put, “I slept in late.” I know I have had quite a few of those. Sometimes those hopeless excuses are true and sometimes they are created from the sneakiest corners of the teenage mind. Our creative streak doesn’t shine so bright during school because there simply is no excuse to be late to class. The only exception would be when a student has a doctor’s appointment or the sky is falling. Other than those few exceptions in life, you better run for your life and remember that the tardy bell just rang. With this new system most students do make it a priority to be on time and to get ready to work…well I can’t really tell you much about that.
And with that I leave you with these four words of encouragement, “You have two minutes.”